Microsoft and Dassault Systemes Cooperate to Deliver

October 13, 1998
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DENVER, Oct. 13, 1998 — At its Professional Developers Conference today, Microsoft Corp. demonstrated the latest Extensible Markup Language (XML) technologies it will add to Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5 and the Windows® operating system, including XML 1.0, XSL, XML DOM and XML Namespaces. With these new technologies, Microsoft becomes the first major software vendor whose browser incorporates support for many of the latest XML specifications coming out of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Now, the integration of these XML technologies into the Windows platform promises to make designing multitier applications for heterogeneous information systems faster and easier than ever.

“Microsoft provides the most complete XML implementation in the industry,”
said Ben Meiry, director, private client architecture group at Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., which is using XML to improve development time, usability, data mining and software distribution.
“We’re excited about Microsoft’s leadership on XML. This gives users, programmers and IT shops the ability to start planning, building and demonstrating real-world XML solutions. They can start preparing themselves for a future in which XML will be the standard language of data.”

Microsoft Leading the XML Charge

Microsoft is actively involved in defining the emerging XML standard and will continue to implement XML as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium. W3C is a platform- and vendor-neutral global organization that oversees standardization of World Wide Web technologies, including XML. A co-founder of the W3C’s XML Working Group, Microsoft enjoys broad support for its efforts from many participants in the open W3C process.

“XML holds great promise for customers who need universal data communications with anyone, anywhere,”
said J. Allard, general manager of Windows DNA infrastructure at Microsoft.
“XML is an important part of Windows DNA, and Microsoft is committed to offering the industry’s best XML technologies with Windows.”

Microsoft will support the following key features in the next update to the Windows operating system and its Internet Explorer browsing software:

In addition to these innovations, Microsoft is using XML in its applications software. For example, the next major release of the Microsoft productivity suite, Microsoft Office 2000, elevates HTML to a companion file format and uses XML to store additional document information. By using XML in this way, Office 2000 users can save documents as Web pages and then later return these documents to their original Office state for editing. Once again, Microsoft is delivering XML technology first, making Windows the premier platform for driving Internet standards and interoperable applications.

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“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

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